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Headline: Coma and Lavieille on the top of the podium

Raised in front of the great pyramids of Giza, the podium of this 10th TOTAL Pharaons Rally has crowned two champions of great calibre and a bunch of amateurs, all charmed by the magic week they have spent in the Lybian desert. Marc Coma (KTM Repsol) in bike and the duo Lavieille-Borsotto (Nissan Pickup Dessoude) in car, have clinched a well deserved final victory, after having ruled the rally during the whole week.

First to step on the ‘Pharaonic’ podium of this 10th TOTAL Pharaons Rally, Marc Coma is literally shining. Signing his third consecutive victory in the Egyptian sand, the official rider from the KTM Repsol team is also on his way to be consacrated World Champion for the third time.

An absolute record for the Catalan which allows him to enter the rally-raid riders hall of fame. Three victories at the ‘Pharaons’, only the missed Fabrizio Meoni (4 victories) managed to do better in this particularly demanding rally, but probably the best preparation for the ‘Dakar’.

This victory, the great Catalan dedicates it naturally to his team, but also to his team member, the young Jordi Viladoms, who had to give up last year at the same race due to some mechanical problems. Thanks to this very good result, the two riders are offering to their team the two highest positions of the podium.

Laureate of the final special stage, Pal Anders Ullevalseter is completed the podium and secures the third place of the FIM Off-Road World Rally Championship. The world podium is also smiling to the Italian Oscar Polli (KTM 450), winner of the 450cc category, after the fall of Francisco Lopez (Honda), the undisputed leader until the stage of yesterday towards Baharija.

Right after him, the very promising young Frenchman, Olivier Pain (Yamaha 450), representing the real revelation of this rally. After having started carefully, the new ‘hope’ of the French enduro racing increased regularly his pace and finally managed to stay in the trail of the best riders, such as the Italian Matteo Graziani (KTM, who won in the production category. The very good performance of Silvia Gianetti (KTM 525), who finished at the 25th position for her second participation in this rally, has also to be noted.

Winner of the FIA World Cup in T2 category last year and second of the Tunisian Rally last April, Christian Lavieille was still in search of his first victory in an African Rally.

The French driver, in association with his co-driver François Borsotto and supported by the team Dessoude, finally signed this Saturday in Cairo his first victory. Largely dominating the competition since the 2nd stage of this 10th TOTAL Pharaons Rally, the former double bike enduro racing world champion has without any doubt crossed a new phase in his successful reconversion to four-wheels.

The withdrawal, in Sitra, of the Polish Krzysztof Holowczyc (Nissan Pickup Overdrive) has given the opportunity to some outsiders to reach the final podium. A good occasion taken by Patrick Sireyjol and Paul Vidal (Bowler Wildcat), who took advantage from their almost perfect race to step on the second place of this podium and to catch at the same time the victory in the Bowler Trophy. Jérome Pélichet and Eugénie Decré are finishing second of this category, dedicated to the strongly built British cars, and third of the overall car ranking.

If he had not stuck in the sand during the 3rd stage (Sitra-Siwa), Etienne Smulevici, whose back has been injured, and his co-driver Gilles Tixador, would have surely stood up on the final podium of this rally. Finally, the crew of the SMG buggy assured themselves the 4th place of the cars classification for a handful of minutes, after having faced some gearbox problems today, during the final stage of the race leading to Cairo.